I didn't get a chance to play with the new Mafia Poker season in Mafia Wars last night due to the late hour when it arrived in our game. Now that I'm looking at it and reading about it more, I can't say I'm overly impressed. We'll have about 9 more days to try and complete this, but unfortunately right now the only way to get cards is to publish a post to your Facebook news feed asking for them.

I got 14 cards when I made a news feed post; according to customer support, we should be able to get up to 20 cards from our posts. It looks like we'll be able to create that news feed post asking for cards every four hours. I know many of us got ticked off over the flood of poker cards in our ZMC during the first Mafia Poker season, but I have to say it kind of sucks that the Poker Card is not on the Free Gift page.

On the bright side,you can collect more Poker Cards by clicking on the news feed posts of your friends. I collected over 70 (73, to be exact) before I finally got bored of the clicking. This is good for those of us with a large and active mafia, as we can readily find posts to click to gain Poker Cards so that we can keep playing; but it's not so good for players with smaller mafias.

If the number of cards shown in your Mafia Poker game doesn't match up with the number of cards you think you should have, you can check your Inventory for Poker Cards to see the exact amount that you have.

Unfortunately for some players, when they generate a post to their Facebook news feed asking for Poker Cards, those of us clicking on their post get the message that the feed has expired.

This happened to me this afternoon, and I wasted over an hour with customer support trying to get the situation resolved. Since this is a timed event, I felt that they should credit me the 20 cards they told me each post can collect. The customer support agent only offered me 10 reward points, which would only buy me 10 Poker Cards!! I argued with him and finally got ticked enough to ask for a supervisor. The supervisor at first told me the same thing, but after I pointed out that I don't harass customer support and milk them for reward points like many players BRAG about doing, he finally capitulated.

Not surprisingly, I'm not certain of the information that the customer support agent and supervisor gave me. The agent told me we could collect 120 cards per day from feeds. The supervisor told me it was 140--120 from our own feeds, and 20 from other players' posts. Well, I already know that part is incorrect, because I collected 73 by clicking posts earlier today. Given all these issues with expired feeds, I wonder if it's not the other way around.

I suspect there's a hard limit of either 120 or 140 per day. Which stinks. You better have at least a 50/50 win ratio to master this event, if what they told me is correct.

We should be able to get these as gifts.

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Zynga posted this on the official Mafia Wars blog regarding the Valentine's Day Massacre "sale". It doesn't really add anything that we can't already see in the game, though. If you hadn't already seen it, they include the list of items that will be unlocked each day. You have to buy each day's "deal" to unlock the next item, you can't just buy one of whichever item you want. These things are always a dud to me. I have better things to spend my money on, and when I do occasionally spend money on the game, it wouldn't be at these outrageous prices for loot...but...to each their own. I know some of you like it. 315 Reward Points would run you almost a hundred dollars!

Love is war, and we’re giving you the advantage. There is no better time to grab this opportunity than during Valentine's Day Massacre. 1. Unlock a better deal for each day, for the next seven days.

2. Each deal offers you more items for the same price: Day 1 Deal has 1 item for 45 reward points; Day 5 Deal has 5 items for 45 reward points.

3. Once unlocked, you can purchase a particular deal as long as you have purchased at least one more previous deal. Example: In order to buy 2 of the Day Three deal, you need to have purchased 2 of the Day Two deal.

4. This event will end on 19th February at 21:30 (PST).

5. Each deal purchased during the sale period would count as 1 purchase towards the Tough Love Sale purchase mastery.

Enjoy the massacre!

PS: Help us make better Mafia Wars features and events by completing this very quick survey to let us know what you think of this one.

I guess Zynga plans to make these group sales a weekly occurrence for Mafia Wars. There's a new group sale available in the Mafia Wars Marketplace, this one for the Bulletproof Spine, and it's currently at the silver level and will cost you 25 reward points if you wish to imbibe.

As with all group sales, the earlier you buy, the cheaper the item is. As more people buy, its stats will go up, but so does the cost to future buyers. This item will be available for the next week.

From the Official Mafia Wars blog. I glanced over it. It still has old wording in it saying that you can send Poker Cards as gifts. I also noticed it lists Ace as the high card this time. I think it was the low card during the first Mafia Poker season. Use the Share button at the bottom of this post to share this Mafia Poker FAQ with your Facebook friends and Families.

Mobsters,
Mafia Poker Season 2 is back with few changes. Read below for more details.Mafia Poker FAQ

Important Note:

As you progress towards Mastery Levels, you will receive one Bronze Mastery item – Single Malt after completing 10 wins. Stats of this item will be updated as you progress towards higher Mastery Levels up to Emerald Mastery.

Q: What is Mafia Poker?
A: Mafia Poker is a simple version of the hugely popular game of poker. The aim is to make a Hand of the best possible 5 cards against the dealer - Juliana.

You make your Hand by selecting and discarding cards from a deck of cards collected by you. Ask your friends for cards or send cards to get some in return. You can also buy cards using Reward Points.

The more cards you have the better are your chances of winning.
At any given point only two of Juliana’s cards will be visible to you. You can gain extra advantage by peeking at her remaining cards.
Stack up the wins to gain mastery over the game and win better rewards.

Q: Is there a minimum level requirement?
A: Yes, to play Mafia Poker, a player must be a minimum of level 25.

Q: What do I need to start the game?
A: You should have minimum of 5 cards in order to start the game. Once you have 5 or more cards, click on “Start” to play the game.

Q: How do I get cards?
A: You can request your friends for cards through feeds and get cards in return when you help them. You can also buy cards using Reward Points.

Q: How do I play?
A: After you start the game, you will play against the dealer – Juliana, with an aim to make a Hand of the best possible 5 cards.

Glossary:

Pack of Cards – 52 Cards (13 cards each in 4 Suites)Suites – Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds (all suites are equal in strength)Order of Cards – Ace is the highest card, King is next … all the way down to a Two
A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2Hand – Your best 5 cards (please see Rank of Hands below)Dealer – Your opponent - JulianaDraw – Replace empty slots or rejected cards with new cardsShow – Reveal cards to see who has wonDiscard – Reject a card from your current hand to replace it with a new cardClick to Keep – Cancel the discard action chosen for one or multiple cardsPeek - At any given point only two of Juliana’s cards will be visible to you. You can gain extra advantage by peeking at her remaining cards.Please note:

All cards that you discard will be permanently removed from your deck of collected cards.

All cards that you use for a Show will also be permanently removed from your deck of collected cards.

Rank of Hands:

1. Royal Flush: Five consecutive cards of the same suite, in order of A-K-Q-J-10 form a Royal Flush.

2. Straight Flush: Any five card sequence in the same suite.

3. Four of a Kind: All four cards of the same rank.

4. Full house: Three cards of the same rank (can be in different suite) plus a pair of cards of another rank, such as K-K-3-3-3

5. Flush: Any five cards of the same suite (not all consecutive or in sequence, otherwise it would be a Straight Flush)

6. Straight: Five cards of in sequence, not all of the same suite. An Ace cannot be in the interior of a straight - for example A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight.

7. Three of a kind: Three cards of the same rank and two other ranks.

8. Two Pair: Two separate pairs. That is, two cards of one rank, two cards of a second rank and remaining one card of a third rank.

9. One Pair: Two cards of the equal rank and remaining three of different ranks.

10. High Card: Five cards of different rank and suite or if a hand does not fall under any category above, it is ranked by the highest single card in hand.

Q: Why am I unable to discard from my hand?
A: This may happen when you have exactly 5 cards in your account (which are already used in forming the hand).
At any point of time in game, you should have at least 6 cards in total to use Discard function.

Q: When to use “Peek” option?
A: At any given point only two of Juliana’s cards will be visible to you.
To override this restriction, use the Peek option to view her remaining cards. This way you will know the hand you need to make to defeat Juliana.

Q: My card deck count shows XX (+YY). Why is the count separated?
A: Mafia Poker is based on a pack of maximum 52 cards. Your card deck count carries two parts:
a. Count of cards remaining in deck (XX) while the game is in progress.
b. Count of any excess cards which you may have received or bought - apart from the deck (+YY)
When you reveal (show) the cards to see who won, the card deck will reset and excess cards (if any) will be adjusted towards the deck to complete the pack.Please note:

All cards that you discard will be permanently removed from your deck of collected cards.

All cards that you use for a Show will also be permanently removed from your deck of collected cards.

Q: What will happen in case of a tie?
A: In case of a tie (for example: both the dealer and you have the same pair), the player having at least One card higher than that of other’s will win.

Q: What are the different Mastery Levels and Rewards?
A: Every time you win a Poker hand, your progress will be counted towards the Mastery of the game. You will receive one Bronze Mastery item – Single Malt after completing 10 wins and the stats of this item will be updated as you progress towards higher Mastery Levels (Upto Emerald - 120 Wins).You will not receive a new item every time you complete a Mastery Level. Following are the Mastery stats:

Q: Where can I view my Mastery status?
A: The Mastery status and number of total wins will be available on the top of Mafia Poker page.
PS: Help us make better Mafia Wars features and events by completing this very quick survey to let us know what you think of this one.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Awww, man! A new Mafia Poker season has begun in Mafia Wars. We kinda figured this would be a recurring theme, given the term "season" in the original round. This also includes spam, of course! You can post for Poker Cards to your Facebook news feed.

Availability to the Mafia Wars secret district in Brazil Smuggler's Haven will be closing in a little over 2 hours now. If you were planning on re-playing that secret district, it's time to start saying your goodbyes. Of course, if you're that bored or anxious to give Zynga your money, it looks like El Dorado is already available--at a price, of course!

Several special event loot items were added to the Mafia Wars inventory overnight. It's hard to guess what these might be for, and my guess is that there's more than one special event that Zynga is preparing for but, that's just a guess. One of the items, the Single Malt, is in the format of mastery levels up to Emerald Mastery that reminds me of a limited time property.

This item, the Mail Shirt, looks remarkably like something I saw on ThinkGeek.com recently (ThinkGeek is an AWESOME site). On one hand, how creative can you get with chain mail? On the other hand...that really does look like the shirt on ThinkGeek.

So more events in the hopper. Yay.

Here's a look at all of the items added last night: Mail Shirt (A:156 D:100) [Armor] from Special Event Irrawady Dolphin (A:99 D:157) [Animal] from Special Event Hell Razor (A:101 D:155) [Weapon] from Special Event Whiner (A:100 D:156) [Vehicle] from Special Event Film Maker (A:157 D:101) [Henchmen] from Special Event Death Plunger (A:156 D:99) [Weapon] from Special Event Snakeskins (A:100 D:155) [Armor] from Special Event Single Malt (A:122 D:86) [Vehicle] from Special Event Single Malt (A:132 D:91) [Vehicle] from Special Event Single Malt (A:142 D:96) [Vehicle] from Special Event Single Malt (A:152 D:101) [Vehicle] from Special Event Single Malt (A:162 D:106) [Vehicle] from Special Event Scar (A:140 D:85) [Weapon] from Special Event Beetle Chest Guard (A:164 D:100) [Armor] from Special Event Hoopoe (A:102 D:163) [Animal] from Special Event Metal Mouse (A:165 D:99) [Vehicle] from Special Event Bludgeon (A:101 D:164) [Weapon] from Special Event Rogue FBI Agent (A:184 D:116) [Henchmen] from Special Event